


Cora

by dizzy



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-27
Updated: 2011-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-16 01:05:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/166786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/pseuds/dizzy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four loosely connected ficlets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cora

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the [](http://community.livejournal.com/stargateland/profile)[**stargateland**](http://community.livejournal.com/stargateland/) big bang challenge. And I also must #thankjo for ~~loving baby fic as much as me~~ providing emotional support and beta duties along the way!

I.

Cameron sings sometimes. She hears his voice in the next room, humming until he's closer and then words, off-key and endearing, and later when they're in bed she brings it up. He laughs, tells her he didn't even realize he was doing it.

"What sort of songs did your momma sing you?" He asks her, curious and earnest.

She thinks about all the lies that she could tell. He'd believe her... or if not, at least not consider it worth the fight to question her.

So she sings, a sweet little song about the juice of a fruit staining a dress, a warning not to be messy. She'd always been a messy child, wanting her hands in everything, always needing to be right in the thick of it no matter what it was. Looking back she suspects her mother made up the song completely in an effort to keep from having to do the wash every other day.

When she finishes, he's smiling. She tucks herself against the pillow self-consciously.

"You've got a pretty voice." He leans over and kisses her. It's warm, sparks something that's becoming familiar fast, and she shifts toward him. "Bet you'll sing to the baby when it gets here."

They don't mention the baby a lot. He knows her feelings on the issue, how she wasn't even - still isn't even - sure she wanted it. They don't know what Adria did to her, what being host to Qetesh did, if she'll even be able to carry to term. Clearly her body rejected the birth control; it might rebel at any moment. She's not showing yet and it's easy to ignore.

But Cam's looking at her with warmth in those bright blue eyes that she's still not used to seeing directed at her and right now, it makes her feel a flush of hope that she clings to. "I'll certainly have to, since your singing might very well hurt it's ears."

  
II.

Morning sickness doesn't happen in the morning for Vala. It happens around the clock, striking at any moment. For a month and a half she exists on jello and saltines and sliced turkey straight out of the package, the only things her stomach will even consider accepting.

She complains constantly and Cam puts up with it. He caters to every whim, except the ones where she's obviously just testing him, as much as she'll let him. The first few weeks after Lam confirms it she stays on base and she doesn't want him with her.

One morning during the third week he stops in to check on her and finds the door open and her asleep on the bed. She's fully dressed, a large empty bowl positioned beside her. He doesn't mean to linger, but he can't help himself. He sits on the bed and reaches over to stroke her hair back from her face, kissing her brow.

She makes a tired noise and then reaches out to grab his hand, tugging him down beside her. "Your child has extremely narrow opinions of what I should and should not be allowed to digest properly."

"Maybe it's just taking after momma, and it only wants the best?" He suggests, laughing... until her face turns green and she bolts out of bed for the bathroom.

He follows her, holding back her hair and rubbing her neck as she retches.

Afterward she brushes her teeth and lets him guide her back to bed, tucking her in and settling himself beside her.

"I feel like I haven't slept in a year," she admits, and he can see the dark circles under her eyes.

"It'll get better. Remember what Carolyn said? First trimester."

"It wasn't like this before." She shuts her eyes. "I suppose that's one thing I have to thank Adria for. She was miraculously well behaved in the womb."

"No, this isn't like before," he says, leaning down to kiss her forehead. It's damp, skin clammy. She really does look exhausted. "This is better."

"I'll be the judge of that," she jokes weakly. "The worst bit is, I'm starving."

"You want anything?"

"Red jello?" She asks it in a hopeful voice.

Restricted from missions and bored by her actual assignment of helping Jackson, she chooses to spend the majority of her days with him on base. What he thinks is punishment turns out to be more like reward, because who would have known? He actually kind of likes having her around.

Not that he'd admit it to her, of course.

She already thinks she has him under her thumb because of the baby. No need for her to realize this soon that he'd pretty much do anything for her, too.

III.

Cam's tired. He feels like he hasn't slept a full night in six months, and it's really beginning to wear him down. He knows he has to do something about it when Jackson notices.

Daniel Jackson, for all of his brilliance, is about the least perceptive person on the planet. He peers at Cam over the rim of his glasses and frowns before announcing, "You look horrible."

"Yeah, well. Try having a pregnant girlfriend some time. Wears you out," Cam says, grunting and hoisting the box in his arms. Definitely the last time he volunteers to help Jackson move anything. When he'd said yes, he'd imagined something light. Papers. Fragile artifacts. Etchings. Apparently, no, this time there were some very promising bricks they'd found on P3X-342.

"Is she still sick?" Daniel says, frowning, looking worried. He's a weird mixture of possessive and protective over Vala, and he and Cam still dance weirdly and awkwardly around it. It doesn't help that Vala's not really going to discourage any attention that anyone pays her. Cam's okay with the flirting, mostly. But Jackson... something about that rubs him the wrong way. They have _history_. There are some things Cam hasn't quite come to terms with yet, not considering how often she disappears to go talk to him.

Maybe it's something he and Vala need to discuss soon, but Cam just isn't sure that he'll like what she has to say, so he's all right with putting it off.

"Yeah," Cam says.

"Shouldn't she be over morning sickness by now?" Daniel asks.

Cam barks out a laugh. "Oh, she's not blowing chunks anymore, don't worry."

"Then what is it?"

Cam just shakes his head. "Trust me, she's keeping me up all night, that's all you need to know."

"What?" Jackson actually stops walking. Cam nearly runs him over.

"Hey, can we keep moving? These things are kinda heavy here." Cam asks.

Daniel just glares at him. "If there are medical issues keeping Vala awake at night, it should be addressed."

Cam struggles with the box, sweat breaking out on his forehead. "Now is really not the time for a heart to heart about my girl's medical state."

He can tell that was the wrong thing to say as soon as the words leave his mouth.

"Your-" Daniel bristles at Cam calling Vala his girl, and Cam feels that surge of irritation and resists the urge to rub it in his face some more. Okay, Daniel might have issues, but Cam has some issues of his own, too. Daniel has to live with the fact that he lost his chance; Cam has to live with the fact that Vala wanted Daniel first. Hell, Daniel was the first person to know she was pregnant, and yeah - that burns. "I'm not sure Vala would appreciate being called anyone's girl."

Cam loses his struggle to keep the box upright. The best he can do is control it's descent, stooping so quickly to ease it to the ground that his back twinges. He straightens, wiping his damp palms off. "I've gotta go finish a report. Think you can handle this on your own? Good."

He's ten feet away when he hears a dull thump. He turns around and finds Daniel hopping slightly, having apparently decided kicking the priceless offworld-artifacts was a good idea.

"You really want to know that badly why she can't sleep? Hormones. She's hornier than a damn toad," he says, and immediately winces at the way his voice seems to echo. Good thing those security cameras don't have sound.

Daniel does his frog impression again, actually taking a step back.

Cam knows that he really ought to shut up right now, but he's tired and frustrated and his mouth is running away with him. "So trust me when I say I've got the situation under control, and if it anything changes I will probably not be keeping you apprised of the situation."

Of course, that's the scene that Sam walks up on. She takes it all in stride - Daniel and Cam staring each other down, the two boxes on the floor. "Boys," she says, in a very firm voice that's a mixture of hardass colonel and tolerant mother. "I'm not going to ask what's going on, but I will strongly encourage you to find somewhere that isn't a secret underground military base to work through it."

They both react, though Daniel moreso. He seems to look to Sam as someone that is by default on his side, and gives her a look that can only be described as a sulk.

"Yes, ma'am." Cam says, smiling at her and even saluting.

She just snorts and rolls her eyes. "Vala was looking for you."

"Better go find her then. You know how demanding she can be these days," he says. Yeah, it's a jab, and he'll feel bad for it... later.

V.

Cam's got their three year old in his lap, squirming and giggling and wanting to know where momma is.

"Momma's sick," is all Cam can say.

She looks up at him with those big, big blue eyes and her bottom lip wobbles and they're in for a crying jag that he wants to head off at the pass so he lifts her up and lets her look through the big window.

Vala sees them and waves, lifts a hand up. It makes Cora squirm harder and Cam puts her down. She runs straight for the door and stops there, turning to look at Cam, waiting for him to come and open it.

"We can't go in, pun'kin." Cam says, walking over to her and picking her up again. "Momma's sick. Remember when you got sick and couldn't go to day care 'cause you were contagious? Well, right now momma's contagious and if we went in there me and you would get sick to."

"Momma gonna be okay?" Cora says, then shoves her thumb into her mouth. It's a habit they're trying to break her of but he lets her get away with it this time.

"I don't know. Momma's not feeling good at all, though. You know what might cheer her up? If you go with Uncle Daniel and draw her a pretty picture, you wanna do that?""

Cora's not buying that bullshit - she's momma's little girl through and through - but when Daniel comes to take her away, she lets him.

*

"I feel fine." She insists, curled up in a chair two feet away from Cam. Only two feet, but there's a solid wall smack in the middle of them, the big glass window letting them see but not hear. They've each got a phone, cold, hard, uncomfortable plastic, pressed to their ear. "I'm doing much better today. I'm out of bed, aren't I?"

He doesn't say anything. Better is a stretch; she doesn't look better. She looks like shit, like she's aged 10 years in the past 48 hours. Her hair is greasy and limp and her skin more than just pale, sallow and paper thin.

"SG-17 just got back. Lam's checking out all of the samples now."

"She's smart. She'll figure it out."

Cam wishes so badly that he could reach out and touch her. "Won't do me any good if you're dead before she does."

*

It's two am when he gets the call from Lam saying that they've administered an antidote to virus.

There's no guarantee. There never is.

Cam goes into Cora's room and lifts her out of her bed. She barely wakes when he bundles her in a blanket, not bothering to change her out of her pajamas. She's asleep again with her head on his shoulder, so tiny and precious so trusting. He kisses the top of her head as he carries her down the hallway.

*

Vala doesn't wake up for six more hours, but Lam does constant checks and determines that the contagion is no longer present. It's safe for Cam and Cora to enter, so they do.

Cora sits on the hard floor and plays with a coloring book and a box of crayons, at least when Cam can persuade her to. She comes to check on Vala a lot. She wants her mother, her playmate, back. Cam can't blame her. He wants Vala back, too.

When Cora gets sleepy, Cam lifts her onto the bed beside Vala. He drifts off himself, an uneasy sort of nap, achieving no actual rest from it. He's barely slept at all since Vala was brought in.

He wakes to the sound of chattering voice. It's Cora, and that much isn't a surprise; she's rarely quiet.

What does surprise him is hearing Vala's answering whisper. He jolts up in his seat. "Vala?"

"Momma's awake," Cora says proudly. She's sitting up beside Vala, who is still laying down. Her eyes look heavy, exhausted, and she doesn't even speak to Cam, just smiles.


End file.
